Dave Charnley, who has died, aged 76, will be remembered by all who saw him, as well as many who didn't, as the finest British boxer never to win a world title. Only the Sheffield middleweight Herol Graham of the modern era could challenge his right to that accolade.

How close the Dartford lightweight came, though, in 1961 when, according to most at ringside, he was robbed over 15 pulsating rounds in a rematch at Earls Court in London with the fine American world champion, Joe "Old Bones" Brown. The Ring magazine made it their Fight of the Year, an award of considerable worth given the competition, not to mention Brown's pedigree.

Brown beat Charnley on cuts the first time they met, in Texas two years earlier; when they rounded out their rivalry in 1963, the Kent fighter knocked out Brown in the sixth of 10 scheduled rounds at the King's Hall, Belle Vue, in Manchester.

Dave was just 27, and Joe's bones were nearly nine years older, but it was a superb win against a fighter who had successfully defended the world lightweight title 11 times, more than anyone in his division until the arrival of Roberto Duran.

In the days before multiple governing bodies, Charnley never got another world title shot; today he might have had several. He retired in 1964 after ill-advisedly going up in weight to fight the world welterweight champion, Emile Griffith, in a non-title 10-rounder at the Empire Pool, Wembley, another long-gone venue.

Griffith stopped him in the ninth but, in one of his last interviews, with Steve Bunce for the BBC last September, Charnley allowed himself a rare word of praise: "I was quite good up to the ninth." Listening to that tape is like going back in time to an age of good manners and self-deprecation, of respect and honour in the ring.

Charnley – who was on a brief book tour to advertise his biography, The Dartford Destroyer, written by James Kirkwood, remembered his first sensation in the sport as that of "excitement". He spoke quietly with a polite, unassuming air, grateful for the opportunity to reminisce.

"It was terrible," he said of the second Jones fight, "but there we are. If I'd got the decision and I thought I'd lost, I wouldn't have been appreciative really."

He won British, Commonwealth and European titles, and finished with 48 wins (27 stoppages), 12 defeats and a draw in the 10 years from 1954. He had won the ABA featherweight title and boxed for the Fitzroy Lodge club in south London. Those are just the stats. The wonder of Charnley was his poise.

Light on his feet, he advanced on his opponents from a southpaw stance like a tiger closing on his prey. He had a wicked left, thrown hard and straight.

Charnley later had hairdressing salons and dabbled in property. "By the time it turns around, I might be too old to do it," he said of the recession that undermined his businesses.

"I didn't particularly like watching too much boxing," he said. "I lived in Dartford, at least an hour's travel to the arenas. I watch it now and again on TV."

You just hope he was not watching two weekends ago when David Haye and Dereck Chisora disgraced themselves in Munich, because that was about as far from the sport he knew and respected as it is possible to imagine.

YOUR CALL

To York Hall in Bethnal Green for Radio 5 Live's attempt to put context on the events of the past week or so. It was a worthwhile exercise, although spoiled in parts by the ingrained habit of boxing folk to row rather than listen.

The promoters Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn were there, and even agreed now and again. So were my loud old mate, Buncey, the BBC's excellent boxing correspondent Mike Costello, Colin Hart (whose silver locks only add to his eminence grise), Kevin Mitchell, who looked fit and expects to get a crack at Ricky Burns if the Scot wins his world title fight against Paulus Moses in Glasgow on Saturday night, former champ James Cook, who does a lot of great community work, Jane Crouch, MBE, and still combative, as well as a decent gathering of fans.

I was slightly surprised to find myself agreeing most to the calm reason of a Tory, the member for Bristol North West, Charlotte Leslie, who is not only a huge Bob Dylan fan but has surfed, swum to a good level, boxed (not competitively) and probably appreciated the bearpit atmosphere, which occasionally had all the couth of prime minister's question time.

Leslie is also president of the National Smelting Co (NSC) Amateur Boxing Club in Shirehampton, Bristol, and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on boxing. Boxing needs all the friends it can get, and the kids at her club have a hard-working advocate for the good side of boxing.

As for Haye and Chisora, the debate followed predictable lines. Warren provided interesting insight to shenanigans by Wladimir Klitschko in the Chisora dressing room before his fight with Vitali Klitschko. Is that any excuse for the way he behaved afterwards, though? Not really. Dereck has said sorry, but he has yet to pay the price.

Neither fighter held their nerve under pressure. In a couple of crazy minutes they forgot everything they might have been taught about self-control. It is impossible to imagine Dave Charnley ever being involved in such an unsavoury incident.

Indeed, with a couple of exceptions, these public brawls are a phenomenon of the past 20 years or so. When Chisora goes before the British Boxing Board of Control on 14 March, it is a thought the panel ought to keep in mind. Most of them knew Charnley.